The Simpsons apologise to Judas Priest fans for calling the band "death metal"

14/01/2014

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The Simpsons isn’t anywhere near as controversial as Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy but it’s managed to upset a few viewers. A recent episode of the show referred to Judas Priest as a “death metal” band which cause an outpouring of comments from enraged fans.

Michael Nelson of Stereogum was one of the incensed few. “I don't care if you want to have fun at metal's expense,” he said in response to the episode, “but if you brazenly mix up black metal and death metal – and the essence of the joke hinges on getting that reference right – well, that's just lazy writing and it deserves to be called out and mocked relentlessly. But that's totally pardonable compared to calling Judas Priest a death metal band.”

We don’t really have any strong opinions on this so we’ll leave it to those who do. “While it'd be ridiculous to suggest that Opeth, Amon Amarth or Entombed would be on the show in place of Priest, it might have been a good idea to not call a 43 year old song that gets played on classic rock “death metal”” was the opinion of Metal Insider.

All the fuss was created by an episode in which Homer illegally downloads some music which lands him in trouble with the FBI. The Feds hire Judas Priest to create a piracy themed version of their song Breaking the Law with changes to the lyrics that centre on “respecting the law” rather than breaking it.

The show’s writers obviously have a sense of humour otherwise The Simpsons wouldn’t have been able to entertain the masses as they have done since 1989. They took the joke further and offered an apology on the opening credits for the next episode when they had Bart write "Judas Priest is not 'death metal'" on the blackboard.